1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an option apparatus, which is configured to feed a sheet to the image forming apparatus, and a postprocessing apparatus, which is configured to execute postprocessing on a sheet discharged from the image forming apparatus, and also relates to an image forming system, which includes the image forming apparatus and at least one of the option apparatus and the postprocessing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming system generally includes an image forming apparatus and a plurality of postprocessing apparatuses, which is connected to the image forming apparatus, such as a finisher, a stacker, or a gluing binding machine.
More specifically, the finisher can staple a bundle of sheets, which includes a number of sheets designated by a user and which has been conveyed from the image forming apparatus. In addition, the stacker can stack a large quantity of sheets conveyed from the image forming apparatus. Furthermore, the gluing binding machine glues the sheets conveyed from the image forming apparatus with a cover. In this manner, a book of a plurality of sheets can be generated.
In a conventional image forming system discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-065209, a switch, which is configured to partially turn on or off a power supply to the postprocessing apparatus by manually controlling the state of power supply, is provided in a specific postprocessing apparatus.
With the above-described configuration, the conventional image forming system can reduce the total power consumed by the entire image forming system because the power supply to a postprocessing apparatus that is not used can be discontinued. However, in the image forming system discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-065209, a user of the system is required to operate a switch for controlling the power supply to each postprocessing apparatus. Therefore, the above-described conventional system cannot achieve a high user operability.